Impact Stories from Professional Growth Policy Area

Fellows launch seed-grant funded MentorMatch Kenya to connect talented women in STEM

Fellow(s): Tima Ali, Eunice Allela, Doreen Irungu, Auma Harriet, Naima Ibrahim

Country: Kenya

Cohort: 2024

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth

On July 6, 2025, the fellows of 2024 Team Kenya — Tima Ali, Eunice Allela, Doreen Irungu, Auma Harriet and Naima Ibrahim — officially launched MentorMatch Kenya, their seed grant-funded initiative designed to connect women STEM graduates with professionals across the globe for mentorship, peer learning and career support.
Hosted at Safaricom PLC’s Michael Joseph Centre in Nairobi, the launch event featured a keynote address, a panel discussion and a high-energy speed mentorship session. The launch brought together mentors, mentees and STEM professionals to engage in dialogue, build community and share insights on the transition from academia to industry.
MentorMatch Kenya aims to close the mentorship gap for women pursuing STEM careers by offering tailored programs that include academic support, job readiness training, and access to tools, resources and networks. The initiative also includes a growing online community via Discord, fostering peer-to-peer networking and learning opportunities.
“Our mission is to create a scalable model of mentorship and support that empowers women in STEM to navigate their careers with confidence,” the team shared. “We’re building something transformational, and we’re thrilled to have our community with us on this journey.”

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Fellow named a TED Fellow 2024 for health tech work

Fellow(s): Norah Magero

Country: Kenya

Cohort: 2022

Policy Area(s): Entrepreneurship, Professional Growth, Public Health

Fellow named a TED Fellow 2024 for health tech work

Fellow Norah Magero (Kenya, 2022), co-founder and CEO of Drop Access Limited, has been selected as a TED Fellow 2024.
Drop Access developed VacciBox, a cold chain solution for delivering heat-sensitive medications to rural communities.
The Ted Fellows Program recognizes professionals who have identified solutions to world changing ideas. They described Norah’s contribution as “connecting the dots between technology, medicine and energy to revolutionize vaccine deliveries in rural Africa” in their selection announcement.
Through the Ted Fellows Program, Norah will have access to tools and training, present her ideas and contributions through TED Talks, and be connected to the TED community.

Report Date...: 04/29/2024

Fellow wins back-to-back awards for Agri-tech strides

Fellow(s): Evangelista Chekera

Country: Zimbabwe

Cohort: 2022

Policy Area(s): Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth

Fellow Evangelista Chekera (Zimbabwe, 2022), CEO and founder of an agricultural technology solutions company recently won back-to-back awards as the 2023 Best Innovator from the Entrepreneurs Network of Zimbabwe and 2023 Best Agro Innovator at the Pacesetters National Excellence Awards organized by the Ministry of Agriculture.
In 2016 Evangelista founded her enterprise, Passion Poultry, to simplify and improve processes for small-holder chicken farmers. She holds patents for two mechanical innovations — a device to reduce the mortality rate among young chickens and another that assists with the slaughtering process.
“I realized that I want to make a significant impact in the food industry,” Evangelista told ShareAmerica in an interview last year. “It pained me to see small-scale farmers doing the wrong things because of their lack of knowledge.”

Report Date...: 11/27/2023

Fellow empowers 120 girls with Green Tech Girls Summer Bootcamp

Fellow(s): Damilola Asaleye

Country: Nigeria

Cohort: 2020-2021

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability, Professional Development, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

Fellow Damilola Asaleye of Nigeria (2020-2021) recently helped produce the Green Tech Girls Summer Bootcamp, a five-day program for high school girls organized by the Girls and Women Technological Empowerment Organization (GWTEO).
The summer camp takes a holistic approach to activities relevant to girls and women that will enhance their self confidence and abilities to become sustainable technology leaders and change makers. Damilola, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Ashdam Solar Company, helped in the production of learning sessions on the topics of basic solar installation, upcycling, sustainable agriculture, financial literacy, information and communication technologies, leadership skills, teamwork, healthy living and visioning. The Green Tech Girls Summer Bootcamp is not the only stop on Damilola’s summer of women and girls’ empowerment. She is also taking part in the BEMORE Summer Bootcamp in Akure, Nigeria with close to 400 girls over the following weeks.
“My summer of impacting girls started yesterday Monday 15th August with the Green Tech Girls Summer Bootcamp,” Damilola recently shared, “and I’ve got my hyper attitude on with adrenaline pumping.”

Report Date...: 8/22/2022

Fellow publishes paper on magnetic field shielding

Fellow(s): Ibtihal Elshami

Country: Libya

Cohort: 2020-2021

Policy Area(s): Environmental Sustainability, Professional Growth

Libyan fellow Ibtihal Elshami (2020-2021) co-published an academic paper, “Magnetic Field Shielding Behavior of Mesh Wire in Low Frequencies”, in the July edition of leading electrical engineering journal, IEEE Xplore. Magnetic fields are waves that emit from many common electronics and wireless communication technologies. Shielding is necessary to reduce performance interference and cyber security risks. Additionally, overexposure to certain low frequency waves has been associated with potential elevated risk of some illnesses and cancers. Ibtihal’s research addresses the rapid adoption of electronic devices that complicate “our daily electromagnetic environment” and explores the under researched magnetic field shielding capacity of thin wire mesh on low frequency waves. Ibtihal has been an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Technology-Benghazi for eight years and has written several papers on the topic.

Report Date...: 7/25/2022

South African Fellows co-host Aviation and Space camp for girls

Fellow(s): Darshni Appalsamy

Country: South Africa

Cohort: 2022

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

South African fellow Refilwe Ledwaba (2019) recently hosted her Girls Fly Programme Africa (GFPA) aviation and space technology camp in Western Cape, South Africa with volunteer support from fellows Darshni Appalsamy (2022) and Nobukhosi Dlamini (2019). The GFPA provides an immersive STEAM development program focused on aviation, space technology, mentorship and career-building skills for a cohort of 40 high school girls. The experience included hands-on practice with 3D software, a visit to a South African National Space Agency, face-to-face interactions with industry professionals. Darshni led a Design Thinking workshop, sharing that she was so happy “to help these smart, ambitious, talented young ladies realize that their dreams, too, are not too big or out of reach. That not even the sky is the limit!”

Report Date...: 7/25/2022

Mentor & fellow team up to deliver computing workshop

Fellow(s): “Kathy Giori, Faten Khalfallah”

Country: Tunisia, United States

Cohort: 2015

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

Mentor Kathy Giori, with the support of fellow Faten Khalfallah (Tunisia, 2015), facilitated a workshop introducing young women to the world of physical computing with Microblocks, a programming language that runs on microcontrollers. Kathy has extensive experience leading workshops for Microblocks, where she directs global partnerships and outreach and serves as a member of the Project Leadership Committee. The interactive event was a part of Get Science, Engineering, and Technology (GetSET) 2022, an outreach program hosted by the Santa Clara Valley chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SCV SWE) that empowers and motivates young women from underrepresented groups to pursue careers in STEM.
Faten assisted the event while on a visit to the U.S. during which she served as an event partner for the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation Summit in Dallas, Texas and an attendee of the Google-sponsored Girl Powered VEX Robotics Workshop in Sunnyvale, CA. She joined these events as a representative of Tunisia and the First Skills Club, a non-profit she co-founded with her husband Rabah Hammouda to provide educational programming for kids to learn and communicate in English via STEM education.

Report Date...: 7/25/2022

Fellow raises six-figure seed funding for e-commerce startup

Fellow(s): Shatha Ajaj

Country: Palestinian Territories

Cohort: 2019

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth

Modesta, a fashion startup founded by Palestinian fellow Shatha Ajaj (2019), has raised six figures in a recent seed funding round. The fundraising round was led by venture capital firm 500 Startups with input from angel investors and the Innovative Private Sector Development Project (IPSD), a program funded by the World Bank.
Founded in March 2020, Modesta is a flourishing e-commerce fashion platform that specializes in diverse offerings of modest women’s clothing. Modesta aims to attract a global customer base seeking an easy and enjoyable way to shop for less-revealing women’s attire for any reason — religious or otherwise. As founder and CEO, Shatha shares that she “is very proud of what Modesta has been able to achieve in the two years since its founding and hopes to “satisfy the needs of modern women who adopt modesty in their lifestyle.”
Shatha intends to use the six-figure seed funding to broaden Modesta’s clientele in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and develop its technology to include more brands and vendors. “The promised land for Modesta is a global vision as a leading modest e-commerce [platform] for women to express their individuality,” Shatha shared in a recent press release.

Report Date...: 7/18/2022

Cameroonian Fellows tapped for One Young World conference

Fellow(s): “Christabel Ngwashi Apholung, Zyh Akumawah”

Country: Cameroon

Cohort: 2020-2021, 2022

Policy Area(s): Education Diplomacy/Mentoring, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

Cameroonian fellows Christabel Ngwashi Apholung (2020-2021) and Zyh Akumawah (2022) have been selected to attend the annual One Young World Summit in the UK as scholars of AstraZeneca’s Young Health Programme (YHP). YHP seeks to prevent the most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease by confronting the primary risk factors – tobacco use, alcohol overconsumption, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet and air pollution.

Christabel is a medical doctor and the founder of MoreThanJustAnMD Health, a storytelling platform that utilizes social media, radio and television to promote proactive health care. She is also steering the Fight Against Substance Abuse Project (FASAP) to educate young adult students about healthy lifestyles and reduce substance abuse.

Zyh, also a medical doctor, is the founder and medical director of EasyHealth, an organization that combines accessible digital technologies with community cooperation to improve the quality of health among rural Cameroonians. Zyh also contributes her time to St Mary Soledad Catholic Hospital and Doctors Without Borders as a medical and mental health resource. She believes that “an amplified voice is key to achieving the policy changes that are needed to help establish more focus on non-communicable diseases among young persons.”
Christabel and Zyh will convene with more than 1,000 young changemakers worldwide to present and network among One Young World Counselors. Past counselors have included Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Sir Bob Geldof, Kofi Annan, Emma Watson, Professor Muhammad Yunus and Arianna Huffington.

Report Date...: 7/11/2022

Fellow hosts seminar on business accounting with help of NGO

Fellow(s): Merjen Saparmyradova

Country: Turkmenistan

Policy Area(s): Economic Impact, Empowering Women and Girls, Professional Growth, Youth Engagement

Merjen Saparmyradova (Turkmenistan, 2019) recently collaborated with Public Accountants, an Ashgabat-based NGO, to lead a seminar on the importance of business accounting as part of her Launch Life Coding Bootcamp for women and girls. The seminar focused on building its participants’ foundational knowledge of economic, financial and legal matters critical for small-scale enterprises and entrepreneurs in Turkmenistan.

Launch Life Coding Bootcamp is designed to promote the economic rights and opportunities of its participants by developing their coding aptitude while also growing their resume, cover letter and interview skills. Merjen believes that “teamwork and collaboration can foster a healthy work culture and environment where teams of individuals can achieve goals through powerful skills and effective work.”

Report Date...: 7/11/2022

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